Past Deadline, Street Families Remain in Hotels

Published: September 30, 1991

(Page 2 of 2)

And to address the underlying problem of a housing shortage, Mayor Koch pledged to create new or rehabilitated housing for 250,000 families over 10 years -- more than 5,000 buildings and 47,000 housing units.

Despite budget cuts, the renovation is still going on, and will soon be adding 1,900 apartments a year, city officials say. Nearly 10,000 temporary and permanent city-owned apartments have opened since Mayor Dinkins took office. But the hopeful early days of his administration, when the hotels were emptying out, now seem long ago.

Many families still sleep side by side in dormitory-style shelters, besides those living in welfare hotels. By June, it will be worse than ever, with 6,000 families living in homeless shelters, city officials predict.

City officials said that some overcrowding is a result of their own miscalculation. To empty the hotels and dormitory shelters quickly, the city gave priority in city housing projects to homeless people. As a result, city officials say, families who lived with relatives and friends in crowded apartments have been entering city shelters in the hopes of getting city apartments after a few months.

Others, mainly advocates for the homeless, counter that the hazards and instability of life in shelters are unattractive enough to deter all but those most desperately in need of shelter.

As the numbers in shelters rose again and the city turned again to hotels, advocates for the homeless sought to force the city to keep its earlier commitments by having the City Council pass laws to close down some of the dormitory shelters by today and by taking the city to court. Anger That U.S. Won't Act

Advocates now say they are frustrated and angry that the Federal Government will not penalize the city for using the hotels and that the city continues to ignore court orders. City officials have already admitted in court to 1,325 violations regarding shelters for pregnant women or women with small children. 'Adevocates Are Appalled'

"This is something that Mayor Koch never would have gotten away with," said Mary Brosnahan, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless. "Advocates are appalled by the fact that if indeed Mayor Dinkins had followed through on Koch's commitments to the Federal Government, the city would be out of hotels by now.

"The forms of deterrence to keep people from the shelters has proven to be an utter failure. The street homeless population that is continuously rising is linked to the city's continued use of armories for shelters, the sweeps of homeless people from Tompkins Square Park and Columbus Circle. It seems like nobody at City Hall gets the picture here."

Victor A. Kovner, the city's Corporation Counsel, said that by court order, the city has to provide emergency housing, not permanent apartments, to all who declare they are homeless. But the courts do not define who is homeless, he said. Eligibility is determined by the state with Federal approval.

City officials said last week that they were seeking to change the eligibility requirements to limit who can declare themselves homeless. By various city estimates, more than 100,000 families live in overcrowded conditions with relatives and friends. Court-Ordered Generosity

Unlike other states with more rigid eligibility rules, New York City is required under various court orders to provide emergency housing for families who say they are homeless, regardless of whether they qualify for welfare.

Last month, Mayor Dinkins appointed Andrew M. Cuomo, the Governor's son and the head of an agency that provides homeless housing, to recommend how the city can improve its shelter system. Advocates see the appointment as yet another admission of failure and as a stalling tactic.

"It's extraordinarily frustrating that an administration that came in with 'a shelter is not a home' as its watchword," said Mr. Banks, "is now seeking to evade legal requirements to provide lawful shelter and is now actually blaming the families themselves for the city's inability to appropriately manage the shelter system."